Dynasty Musings: NCAA 11 Dynasty Review

Feature Article

Submitted on: 07/26/2010 by Dave Pearson

Before we start, I will explain my ratings system. There are different aspects that go into a franchise or dynasty mode, and my ratings reflect that. Each category will be rated 1-10 with 1 being the lowest, and 10 being the highest.

Below are the criteria I will be using to judge the aspects of the NCAA Football 11 Dynasty mode.

Navigation: A huge aspect of a franchise or dynasty mode is the navigation system. If there are too many or not enough menus, it can make the game extremely difficult to sift through. Managing your team is not supposed to all be done on one screen, and there is nothing worse than not knowing where to go when you want to check your injuries, make a change in your starting lineup or change your game plan. Load times tie into navigation as well.

Simulation: If you are like me, you are not going to play every single game in a baseball franchise. So the realism of the simulation engine is an important cog in any good franchise or dynasty mode. It is not worth putting a chunk of your time into managing a baseball team if every decent player hits close to .400, or if you’re managing a hockey team and a guy like Georges Laraque pots 50 goals in a season.

Replay Value: This is one of the most important parts of a franchise or dynasty mode. If the mode is too easy or there are too many bugs, it takes away the point of playing the mode more than once. A prime example of this is the Madden franchise mode. Like I mentioned in my first article, there is really only one way to be successful. You have to have a quarterback with high awareness. This aspect makes the mode repetitive and boring at times.

Presentation: To quote my favorite television show of all time, The Wire, "All the pieces matter." Presentation is all the little things that put a franchise or dynasty mode over the top. It is one area that gets overlooked a ton in the franchise area of a game. SCEA's The Show does an unbelievable job of presenting information to you as you are progressing further into a season. For example, if you make a trade in The Show, the announcers will mention the trade during the game, and a graphic will pop up with the trade details. In NCAA, the developers did a great job of mentioning season, career and game milestones to the player as you went along. These types of elements just give you extra satisfaction that makes you want to play again.

Wild card: An area that is entirely specific to a singular sports game, such as recruiting in college athletics. Not every sports game has an "other" category.

Offseason: This one does not need much explanation. How deep is the offseason? Is it comparable to real life, or did the creators skim through and only place the truly big events in the game? Are the results you get from the offseason realistic?

So with the ratings criteria out of the way, let’s delve into this year’s installment of NCAA Football by EA Sports.

Navigation

The menus in NCAA 11 are much more similar to Madden this year, and much cleaner as well. There is not much difference in terms of new menus, although you can access your recruiting plan and in-season promises this year. The load times, for me at least, have been similar to other current-gen versions of NCAA. I will say that there is a slight delay when traveling between menus and loading screens. However, this is excusable since there are so many players, teams and stats that the game has to keep track of during the season.

The menus are simply average. There is not much to complain about, but one feature I would love to see added is a future depth chart screen where you can get a better feel for what your team is going to look like down the road.

Score: 7.5/10

Simulation

NCAA's simulation engine has never been the game's bread and butter. I have simulated many, many seasons in my short time with the game to try to get a feel for what is successful and what fails with the sim.

There are very few undefeated or even one-loss teams in the sim. The teams that appear to be the most successful are good, not great teams at the top of a subpar conference. One conference that really struggles in the simulations is the SEC. Since every team is so good in the conference, I have frequently seen the BCS representative have a record in the 7-5 or 8-4 range. I think one reason for this is the lack of progression during the season for the teams that start out well. With the dialed down overalls, this problem is much less prevalent in this year’s version, but still presents a problem if you are the type that does not like to play every game. In addition, it also seems like many strong teams just get worse over the years from a personnel standpoint.

As far as player stats go, the pass-happy teams such as Texas Tech and Hawaii continue their dominance in this year's game. I have seen Texas Tech make it to the national championship game twice in about 10 simulated seasons, with their quarterback throwing for 500-plus yards twice in the title game.

Score: 6/10

Replay Value

The replay value of the Dynasty mode is a strong point in NCAA 11. Although there are some things that can be predicted in each dynasty, the wide variety of teams and conferences make it possible to play any type of dynasty that you want. Want to take over Nebraska and get them back to being a national powerhouse? That's possible. Want to take over SMU and attempt to get back to the pre-death-penalty plateau? It’s more difficult but definitely attainable. Want to grab Texas and continue churning out NFL players and competing for national titles? That’s fine, too. There are tons of different possibilities with this game.

The recruiting difficulty option is one that I have wanted EA Sports to add for years, and it’s finally here. This option makes the replay value much higher because being a powerhouse is no longer automatically easy. Recruiting against the big boys on Heisman is a hell of a time, and you really have to pay attention and pick your battles wisely. As far as bugs go, I have not experienced a whole lot of them. In addition, the game has not frozen on me once.

Score: 8.5/10

Presentation

The biggest leap NCAA 11 took this year was in the presentation department. I still can’t stand the repetitive commentary, but the developers have added a few new lines of dialogue, and it is at least tolerable. The addition of ESPN integration has been a longtime coming, and it is a welcome addition to the game, especially because NCAA Football was one of the most poorly presented games in the past. It really does add so much more to the game for me. Whether it is the custom entrances, in-game graphics or replay wipes, NCAA makes you feel like you are a part of a real college football season.

Again, I would have liked to have seen some improvements to the extremely robotic pregame commentary -- Brad Nessler especially. Nessler should be setting up the game a lot more. There is nothing like getting hyped for a game between The, Michigan Wolverines, And, The, Nittany Lions, From, Penn State. So it was a big step forward this year for NCAA, but there is still lots to improve.

Score: 8.5/10

"I still have a few problems with the recruiting system, like knowing exactly what the recruits' ratings are from the start."

Recruiting (Wild Card)

I like but do not love the new recruiting system. I always wondered why I only talked about what I wanted to talk about with recruits in previous versions of the game, but the developers have fixed that this season with topic roulette.

In the past, the conversations would go something like this: "Hey, this is coach Spurrier. Here's what we're going to talk about. What's that? I don't have a good track record with producing pro quarterbacks? Shut up, we're talking about our program prestige!"

This year you actually need to respond to the recruits' concerns, or use one of your topic changes. The actual recruiting is pretty much the same, except now you are getting legitimate whole numbers instead of a computer-generated guy making a face at you to tell you how well your recruiting session is going. The numbers on a recruit's school list that tell you how far behind or how big your lead has become is a really nice touch as well.

I still have a few problems with the recruiting system, like knowing exactly what the recruits' ratings are from the start. I should have to scout the player further once I begin to recruit him to know his ratings. The now-defunct NCAA Basketball series that EA Sports created did a great job in this regard. How do I know how good a cornerback's play-recognition rating is as soon as he is generated in the pool? On top of that, CPU teams do not always recruit for need. They might end up with a bunch of halfbacks or quarterbacks but not have an outside linebacker on the roster.

The other thing that bothers me is the unrealistic nature of how a recruit chooses a school. A soft commit should be one that can be reversed if the other schools work hard enough, or make some sort of in-season stride like winning a national championship or having a player at the recruit's position win a Heisman. Recruiting today is a never-ending, dynamic process. Kids change their commitments all the time in real life, but when they commit in this game, they are in your class no matter what. Again, similar to presentation, recruiting has gotten better, but it is still not where it should be.

Score: 7/10

Offseason

The offseason appears to be almost identical to past versions. It's still decent, but there's not much depth to it, and I get the feeling that most people will probably rush through it once recruiting is over. One feature that I miss is the spring game. Why did they ever take that out? It was nice to play with my incoming freshmen early on so I could get a feel for whether or not they might be able to contribute early on. Plus, it was great to get a feel for my team in general. Spring games are bigger than ever, with the bigger schools even having theirs broadcasted on national TV.

Offseason recruiting is also the same. In short, this area is decent. Position changes are always fun, but I think there should be less of a penalty when switching a guy from tight end to fullback, or a cornerback to receiver. This stuff happens all the time in real life, but they make it very difficult to do in the game.

Score: 7/10

Final Thoughts

Overall, Dynasty mode has definitely improved, but I still feel like EA Sports is only scratching the surface of the mode's potential. The presentation is much better, recruiting is improved, but there’s still some things that leave me scratching my head. If you are the type of player that will play out every game in your dynasty, you will have a great time playing your dynasty. If you are more of a simulation buff, you will find yourself pulling out your hair and putting a new game into your system.

Navigation: 7.5/10
Simulation: 6/10
Replay Value: 8.5/10
Presentation: 8.5/10
Recruiting: 7/10
Off-Season: 7/10

Overall: 7.5/10

What's the best new addition to Dynasty mode? What do you think is one thing they absolutely have to include or improve upon in next year's version?

NCAA Football 11 Videos

Member Comments

# 1 jethrotull @ 07/26/10 02:41 PM

I like the offseason and difficulty in recruiting, but when 4 star recruits come in with 39 AWR and a 63 OVR, it ruins the game. After 4 years of simulation there are hardly any star players around. Run it 5 or 6 years down the line. You will see that the kickers are terrible, the receivers and backs could not juke out someones grandma, and the quarterbacks are sub par. I really hope they address this with a patch, because they put in some nice work on it, but if they don't, this game just does not work or play well in dynasty mode.

I love the game overall, and I really only play Dynasty mode, so a patch or workaround would go a long way to make a good product great.

# 2 DJ @ 07/26/10 02:46 PM

I agree about the Soft Commit; there needs to be an opportunity for another team to swoop in and steal that recruit. As it stands now, a Soft Commit is basically the same as a Hard Commit, just that you have to spend another week or two talking with the player before he officially decides where he is going.

I do like that there is adjustable difficulty for recruiting. It was much-needed. I'm on All-American and feel that's a good level for me, as I don't like to spend hours pouring over recruits, but do enjoy the recruiting process. You don't get all the players you want like you used to in the past, and with the 10-hour limit, you really have to pick your spots in terms of what players you will target.

# 3 Fluffhead @ 07/26/10 02:46 PM

Hmmm, supplemental review to the original...cya tactics?

# 4 Smooth Pancakes @ 07/26/10 04:04 PM

One issue with your review. You CAN steal soft commits. I have been playing two random dynasties over the past week or two, and so far in week 13 of season 1, and between the two combined, I have stolen 3 soft commits, going from them being soft commits to another program, to soft committing to me, to hard committing to me in a three week swing.

So it is possible, and pretty easy, to steal soft commits. However if you're trailing the team the guy has soft committed to by a couple hundred points, obviously you don't have a chance in hell. But if you're like 1 point behind or 50 points behind or something, you have a great chance of stealing the guy and have him switch soft commits to you.

And we'll agree to disagree on the recruit ratings comment. Personally I think it is a stupid idea. If I'm recruiting a player for my dynasty, I want that "will he end up being a great player or am I spending my time going after a black sheep?" If I am able to sit there looking at every rating after a "couple weeks of scouting", then what's the point. I'd rather sit there for half an hour comparing rating grades and deciding if I want DE A or DE B to be the potential future star of my defense and wondering if I have gone after the right one or gone after one who will end up a bust and have a sub-par career.

If you really want actual numbers instead of grades when it comes to recruits ratings, tell EA to make it a "Time-Saver". Otherwise, keep it the heck out of my dynasties!

# 5 dalecooper @ 07/26/10 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Djwlfpack


	I agree about the Soft Commit; there needs to be an opportunity for another team to swoop in and steal that recruit. As it stands now, a Soft Commit is basically the same as a Hard Commit, just that you have to spend another week or two talking with the player before he officially decides where he is going.

I've flipped players that were soft-committed to other schools. I haven't had the CPU do it to me and I don't know if it's possible, but the soft commit does seem to mean something different than the hard one.

# 6 Dave Pearson @ 07/26/10 05:00 PM

Smooth Pancakes - You're right in the context of the game. I should have been more specific. I'm talking about a guy that "hard" commits very early and then will not speak to another coach for the duration that he remains a recruit and not on that team's roster. I understand that a "soft" commit in the game doesn't really mean anything except for the fact that he is extremely close to becoming a "hard" commit.

# 7 Dave Pearson @ 07/26/10 05:17 PM

Also, Smooth Pancakes. How about a potential rating for recruits, or at least they tell you if the recruit has great upside or not? That's sort of in the middle for what you and I are talking about. So, your assistant coaches (Entire article planned on how NCAA needs to implement assistants more, btw) tell you how good the kid currently is at a rating, or close to it (maybe a range), and then there is some sort of potential rating for the kid. One thing that has always bothered me is the lack of physical growth with the recruits.. how many of you have gotten a 5-star at 6'2 166 lbs and never seen him gain a pound? Potential could have something to do with this, as well.

# 8 Dbene66 @ 07/26/10 05:37 PM

so is there any official word from developers on why the dynasty progression is so bad? why do all the teams just begin to suck?

# 9 thbends @ 07/26/10 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Djwlfpack


	I agree about the Soft Commit; there needs to be an opportunity for another team to swoop in and steal that recruit. As it stands now, a Soft Commit is basically the same as a Hard Commit, just that you have to spend another week or two talking with the player before he officially decides where he is going. I do like that there is adjustable difficulty for recruiting. It was much-needed. I'm on All-American and feel that's a good level for me, as I don't like to spend hours pouring over recruits, but do enjoy the recruiting process. You don't get all the players you want like you used to in the past, and with the 10-hour limit, you really have to pick your spots in terms of what players you will target.

Not true I got a guy to change to me before. I got an achievement for it too.

# 10 Smooth Pancakes @ 07/26/10 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Pearson


	Smooth Pancakes - You're right in the context of the game. I should have been more specific. I'm talking about a guy that "hard" commits very early and then will not speak to another coach for the duration that he remains a recruit and not on that team's roster. I understand that a "soft" commit in the game doesn't really mean anything except for the fact that he is extremely close to becoming a "hard" commit.

Dave - That makes more sense now. I could see something like that being changed to occur in the future, as long as EA implemented it correctly to not be abused. I don't want the CPU suddenly going all gung ho and all out on my hard commits to try and make them leave me after I've claimed them. If it could be implemented smartly, it would definitely add an interesting new levels to recruiting.

As for the ratings, I could agree on a middle ground like that. I absolutely loved NCAA Basketball. It was a must buy every year along with NCAA Football, but I always hated having the ratings revealed to you with scouting. It takes away the guessing game and unknown factor. Now maybe, if like you mention, there was a range in terms of potential, that could work. Granted I personally would want large ranges. Seeing a range as 80-89, you may as well stick with the grades. Now if the range was 65-85 or something, where there is a large range that the kid could fall anywhere in there, it'd give you the ability to see what you might be looking at in terms of skill, as well as keeping the unknown factor and the guessing game in there in terms of choosing between DE A or DE B.

And I look forward to that article on the assistants! Two things that I have wanted to see for years now in this game, assistant coaches and coaching carousel. So I can't wait to read that article about assistants!

And I agree completely with the physical growth. Granted at that age and that point, you really wouldn't see much, if anything, in terms of growth in height, but it would be nice to see the player's weight fluctuate, and potentially seeing ratings change because of that. if you had a halfback come in at 200 pounds and a high speed rating, if he ends up bulking up to say 245 (in an extreme case), then you should see his speed rating drop a good bit, as he has gone from being a speed halfback, to being a power halfback. To have certain, specific ratings change in relations to a changing weight, would be great to see.

# 11 Brandwin @ 07/26/10 06:31 PM

Pretty spot on, but you can change a soft commits mind.

There was a soft commit I was going after and I was #3 behind Florida and Texas... I jumped to #2 and next thing I know I am number one, a few weeks later he signed with Florida.

# 12 cb35 @ 07/26/10 06:57 PM

first let me say this game is so fun its out of control my friends and I are in our 30s and online dynasty is fantastic. if I were to nit pick put in the custom schedule control for the commissioner not sure why they took that out. as the reviewer said fix the CPU recruiting balance glitch. we play every game and didn't get past season 4 but that is good to know. how about in game updates if another online user is playing at the same time or their highlights at halftime. more stats in game. vary announcing crews like hoops had. just a few suggestions and make sure your servers are stable

# 13 khaliib @ 07/26/10 07:21 PM

They need to move mascot games and the other fluff, and make it DLC and use the disk space to really go all out. Video Games will always have flaws, so those waiting for the perfect game, is just nieve.

The ratings issue is up for debate, because I have no problem with the so called low ratings because these are fictional values that depend on individual interpretation of what is "Real" or right. I've always said they should include a Ratings Threshold Slider per position, this would eleminate the ratings issue.

For presentation:
When I see the animated crowds/sidelines in other sports games (hockey, baseball, basketball) I can't understand why football can't have that. The argument that trying to implement into a football game is too hard, is a lame excuse.

Dynamic crowds that fluctuate would go a long way in this department.

What happend to the "Blimp" that use to be in some the older FB games? Add camera shots during play breaks etc...., adds immersion to the game.
Not going to say anything about the camera. This one blows my mind why it's not part of the presentation.

**Don't be affraid to steal ideas from other game makers. Stop tying to create a "NEW" wheel!!! Use and improve what's already out.

Like basketball/baseball, have different throwing/running animations that make it seem like your getting a different/unique player.

Coaching Carousel, with playbooks tied to the fictional coaches, instead of schools.

If you want Dynasty get really deep and crazy, allow the gamer the ability to go and what game generated highlight tape of selected recruits.

Find a way to include fictional TV stations covering local games with fictional TV broadcasters calling the game.

Show players running off/on field holding up package/formation changes.

Talk about possible recruits at games (major schools) during telecast broadcast.

Get rid of the OVR and just have regular measurables and positional attributes.

Allow gamers the ability to practice (throws, catching, running,kicking/punting), during Pre-Game routines like in College Hoops 2k8.

I could go on, but just utilize gamer suggestions to make Dynasty deeper.

# 14 Antwuan @ 07/26/10 07:35 PM

Wow, those are some really low scores for what I think is a pretty good dynasty. I know that there are ways to improve, but what they have set out to do this year in this game is pretty good...

I like the write-up, but the ratings might be a bit harsh. That's just my opnion though.

# 15 patsfan188 @ 07/26/10 08:13 PM

Why can't they bring back player training? Like when you did the 40 yard dash, QB pocket drills, etc, to make your players better. Or just because it's not next gen that they can't do that? and players should progress during the season like older versions. It's lame in these games because players don't get good!

# 16 da ThRONe @ 07/26/10 08:23 PM

I would like to see stats from the recruits as the year plays out. This game needs a LOI day and all targets should be available until they sign.

# 17 bnoe1023 @ 07/27/10 12:08 PM

I just started my dynasty last night, and while the initial gameplay, presentation, etc. are great, a few things worry me moving forward:

- QB AWR: any QB w/ a rating less than 81 has terrible SIM stats. I saw this in Week 1 of simulation last night, as Florida lost at home to Miami Ohio with John Brantley's completion % around 40-50%. That's just stupid.

- CPU recruiting: this really worries me, as I like to try to go as far as I can in my Dynasty mode to, you know, build a dynasty. But what's the fun in that when the competition gets easier and easier each year because the CPU teams don't recruit for need? This needs fixing ASAP EA!

- Player progression: this may be my biggest worry, as I don't want there to be a bunch of sub-par players 5-6 years down the road. One of the most enjoyable aspects of video games and dynasties to me is playing with and against dominant players. What's the fun in playing with a bunch of average joe's? Also, this would seem to affect uploading Draft Classes to Madden Franchise mode as well, which I like to do.

# 18 Uncle Stumpy @ 07/27/10 04:04 PM

I used to love NCAA football, now i hate it. Same thing every year, nothing new. Yes, i'm fully aware sports is repetitive in nature, but come on. You should only have the same commentary at the absolute most 3 years in a row, and you should be adding a ton of lines in year 2 and 3 seeing as you have the base. This is boring! I've gone from purchasing the game on the first day and pretty much throwing it in the garbage after ten minutes, to only being bored after a couple games. Presentation is improved, but not by much. Gameplay is awesome, agreed, but there's still a ton of work to be done, and this is coming from someone who hates to bash games....maybe i'm just getting too old for this, because there are very few sports games that have kept me entertained on next gen.

I want to see player's being disciplined again. I want at have, at half time, the option or 3 0r 4 things that i can say to my team to get them ready, and I want to see if my speech flops, or inspires them a la knute Rockne.

I want assistant coaches to be implemented, but I could care less about playbooks. I want to see how they will improve their specific position.

I want to have sort of an "Owner's mode" to set a budget, and if i'm a small school, be able to build a new gym for the team.

I'd love to see 1AA involved, and make it so that you can build from being a great 1AA team to a great 1A team.

I want to see fans screaming for their coach to be fired if they struggle. I want them screaming to him in as school president if he's good.

I want interviews with players, so we can have their words "posted on the blackboard" if they slight next week's opposition.

Dynasty modes can be so much more than what they are right now, it's sad.

yeah, gameplay's great now, let's move Dynasty's to next gen, or I'll just stop buying your games altogether.

Sorry for the rant, but I'm again dissapointed in the game.

More Links